With Back Surgery Only Alternative, Ex-Ram Dieter Brock Decides to Retire

Quarterback Dieter Brock, who played in both the National Football League and its Canadian counterpart, said a chronic back injury will force him to retire.

Brock, 36, has two years remaining on a $2.1 million, four-year contract with the Los Angeles Rams, a team he helped lead to the NFC championship game in 1985.

But the former Jacksonville State star sat out nearly all of last year.

“I’ve accepted the fact that it’s over,” Brock said. “I can’t do it like I am.”

Brock told the Birmingham News in a story published Sunday he has ruptured discs and a cracked vertebra in his lower back that would require “radical surgery” if he were to try to continue playing.

“To have something like that done would be crazy,” he said. “I’d have a 50% chance of successful surgery and coming back, and 50% is not good enough.”

Brock played 11 seasons in the Canadian Football League, winning two Most Valuable Player awards. At age 34, he changed leagues and became a starter for the Rams in 1985, completing a club-record 59.7% of his passes for 2,658 yards and 16 touchdowns.